Chanelle Segerius-Bruce: Online Business Consultant, Fractional COO and AI Integrator
Updated 25 August 2026 by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce
If you've landed here after searching my name, this is the current answer. I work with established online business owners as a consultant, as a fractional COO, and on AI integration. Three ways of doing one job: making a business run properly without its owner sitting in the middle of every decision.
This post replaces one I wrote in 2016, when I'd just started coaching. Ten years on the work looks quite different, so it's worth being straight about what I actually do now.
The short answer
Chanelle Segerius-Bruce is an online business consultant, fractional COO and AI integrator based in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa. She works with established business owners who already sell, on positioning and messaging, launch planning, the systems a business runs on, and putting AI to work in a way that sounds like the owner rather than a robot. She's spent over 20 years in branding and marketing, starting in London ad agencies including Grey, and has helped more than 150 experts build and launch their personal brands and online programmes. Two past clients have gone on to seven-figure exits. Her main way of working with people is Get Leveraged, a 1:1 consulting engagement.
In this post
What I actually do now
I'm an online business consultant. Most weeks that means sitting with someone who already has a business that sells, and working out where it's jammed. Sometimes the problem is messaging. Sometimes it's a launch that needs planning properly. Often it's that the owner is the bottleneck and everything waits on them.
The three strands overlap more than they sound like they do. Consulting is the advice and the plan. Fractional COO work is being the person who runs it. AI integration is building the tools that take the repetitive parts off a human's desk. Plenty of clients get all three.
What I don't do any more is general business coaching. I stopped calling myself a business coach a while back, because it stopped describing the work.
Consulting, which is most of the work
The main way I work with people is Get Leveraged, my 1:1 consulting. Two 90-minute calls a month, Telegram Monday to Thursday, and a weekly review of whatever you're working on. That might be your sales page, an offer you're shaping, a launch plan, or the question of where AI actually belongs in your business and where it doesn't.
It's built for people who are already selling and are done being the bottleneck. Not beginners, and I don't treat anyone like one.
The first thing we usually fix is positioning. Clear messaging sells, and everything else is noise. No amount of clever automation rescues an offer nobody understands.
If the brand and website need building at the same time, that's Amplify Your Brand + Website. If you'd rather work at your own pace, Brand Your Expertise Online is now self-study.
Fractional COO and Integrator work
For some clients I'm the Integrator, or the fractional COO. The visionary has the ideas. I'm the one who turns them into a plan with dates on it, and then makes sure it happens.
In practice that's launch management, team structure, working out who should be doing what, building the SOPs, and running the weekly rhythm so things don't quietly slide. I've done this inside other people's businesses as well as advising on it, which is a different thing from reading about it.
It's also the part of the work I enjoy most. I like a team that feels like a family and a Monday where everybody knows what they're doing.
AI integration, and what that means in practice
I've worked with Claude since 2023, well before most people in this industry were paying attention. I build AI workflows and agents that write in a business owner's own voice, so the business sounds like them and gives them their time back.
The distinction that matters: I'm not handing you a list of prompts. I build the thing, wire it into how you already work, and train it on your actual voice and your actual offers. A blog agent that knows your ban list. An inbox agent that drafts replies the way you'd write them. A research agent that does the digging before a launch.
Where AI belongs is a strategy question before it's a tools question. Some of what people want to automate shouldn't be, and I'll say so.
Who I work with
Mostly women who've been running a business for four years or more, doing well on 1:1 work, and hitting the ceiling that comes with it. They know their field properly. They're tired of being the only person who can do the thing.
Some want a group programme or a course built and launched. Some want their operations to hold together without them. Some want AI doing the work they've been doing at 10pm. Usually it's a mix.
How I got here
I started in graphic design in Durban, then moved to London in 2000. I spent years as a high-end retoucher, including at Grey, one of the top ten agencies, working on shoots for Mario Testino for Vogue, and on Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Versace. I also worked in-house at The Body Shop.
Then I ran a destination wedding photography business for about a decade, shooting in Bali, Santorini and Morocco, with most of that work published in the glossy wedding press. You & Your Wedding commissioned me for their back fashion pages.
We moved to Turks and Caicos for two and a half years, where my daughter was born, and came home to South Africa in 2015. I hired a business coach, started a social media marketing company, and began teaching what I knew. Since then I've helped more than 150 experts build and launch their personal brands and online programmes. Two of them have gone on to seven-figure exits.
I've been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Stylist and Thrive Global. I live in Jeffrey's Bay, within walking distance of the ocean, which has been the one non-negotiable since we left the UK.
Why this post changed
The version of this page that sat here since 2016 announced that I'd started a coaching business. It was accurate at the time and hopelessly out of date by about 2019.
It also kept ranking, which is the awkward part. People searching my name were landing on a ten-year-old introduction to a business that had moved on. So I rewrote it rather than deleting it, because the page has earned its place and the information on it just needed to catch up.
If you want to talk about working together, book a call to see if we're the right fit. Around 30 minutes, no hard sell.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chanelle Segerius-Bruce a business coach?
Not any more. She worked as a business coach from 2015 and now works as an online business consultant, fractional COO and AI integrator. The change reflects the work itself: less general coaching, more building positioning, launches, systems and AI workflows inside businesses that already sell.
What does a fractional COO do?
A fractional COO runs the operations side of a business part-time, rather than being a full-time hire. In Chanelle's case that covers launch management, team structure, SOPs and the weekly rhythm that keeps projects moving. The visionary sets direction and the Integrator makes it happen on a timeline.
What kind of AI work does she do?
She builds AI workflows and agents trained on a business owner's own voice, offers and rules, so the output sounds like the owner. Examples include content agents, inbox agents that draft replies, and research agents used ahead of a launch. She has worked with Claude since 2023.
Who does she work with?
Established business owners, usually four or more years in, who are already selling and want to stop being the bottleneck. Her main offer is Get Leveraged, a 1:1 consulting engagement with two 90-minute calls a month, Telegram access Monday to Thursday, and weekly reviews.
Where is she based?
Jeffrey's Bay, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. She works with clients in the UK and the United States, and has previously lived in London for 12 years and in Turks and Caicos.
